With over 80,000 students, faculty, and staff on campus, it’s difficult to comprehend the sheer number of packages, textbooks, course packets and dorm mail UW Mailing Services delivers on a daily basis. Thankfully, those deliveries are now a lot more efficient and environmentally friendly.

The UW EcoCAR team is working to replicate last year's success with competition here in Seattle starting May 29. The team took second place in the EcoCAR2 competition in 2014, and is nearly completed with the first year of EcoCAR3 which requires the team to complete their design to convert a Chevrolet Camaro to be as energy efficient as possible while keeping its performance.

The University of Washington was recently named a Gold level Bicycle Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists, putting UW among just 12 schools nationwide to earn a Gold or Platinum rating.

"This is a conversation that is happening at campuses and in communities across the U.S. and the University of Washington is proud to be taking the lead," UW Transportation Services Director Josh Kavanagh said.

But on the inside it’s a hybrid like no other, with two separate engines — one biodiesel, the other electric — that together give it the muscle of, well, a muscle car, not the faint and tentative speed of some hybrids.

For the past three years, a team of University of Washington students has designed, planned, tested, rebuilt, rewired and re-engineered the innards of the General Motors car.

Ross Reynolds speaks with Margaret O'Mara, history professor at the University of Washington, about how Seattle's urban center focus might affect the University District. The urban center focus is one of three planning alternatives being considered for Seattle 2035 as the city prepares for population growth over the next 20 years.

To cope with the proposed changes in the transit services from King County Metro, the UW Transportation Services (UWTS) encourages UW students, staff, and faculty to take advantage of UW carpooling and rideshare programs in Seattle to get to campus.

“Huskies are smart,” said Josh Kavanagh, director of UW Transportation Services (UWTS). “I have every reason to think that they can navigate this change and for many people, they can still take transit. It may be a less convenient connection or a more crowded connection and frankly, I don’t think that approach is good enough.”

Although I try to ride my bike to work a few days a week all year ‘round, spring is the time when I really get motivated. It’s finally light when I go to work and when I head for home. In the daylight I feel a little safer and there’s more to enjoy on my ride – dramatic skies, spring blossoms, ducklings at Green Lake, and parades of joggers, dog-walkers, and families out for a stroll. The ride can still be a bit chilly, but I don’t need as many layers or as much determination as it takes to ride in the middle of winter.